COVID-19 IL update

There is not, unfortunately. The Braves placed him on the 10-day IL according to our data provider, not the distinct COVID-19 IL.

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=9902

This isn’t a question of ‘in the spirit’ - Philadelphia placed their players on the COVID-19 IL, and the Braves did not do that with Freeman.

I understand where this is coming from, but no Ottoneu players will be specifically exempt from arbitration and salary increases at the end of this season, assuming it is completed. This includes players who opt-out now or during the season.

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I’m actually more interested in the cap relief…IL player salaries count against the cap; I see we are getting an additional roster slot for them, but if owners aren’t paying voluntary opt outs I don’t think their salaries should count against the cap…what do you think?

No, there won’t be any cap relief for players you have rostered that opt-out of the MLB season.

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additional roster spots won’t be worth much in that case…

thanks for considering anyway

If you want to provide cap relief for opt out players in your leagues, I believe the commissioner has the tools to do this.

Can these layers who opted out be released in order to free up salary?

Yeah, no changes to how cutting players works at all. You are free to cut anyone on your team’s roster that you want to.

For the covid19 and optout list, does the 30-day lockout period for rebidding on them if you drop apply otto-wide or is there a way leagues can override manually. Seems like this might be a way for leagues to have a bit of a midseason redraft as well

Your commish could make it a penalty free cut and then you’d be able to take part in an auction, I believe. Not 100% sure about the last part.

What I’ve proposed in one of my leagues is to allow a PF cut, but then put the player on the restricted list until next year’s auction.

Any cut across anywhere in the site is subject to the 30-day re-auction rule.

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One league I’m in is opening up penalty free cuts until opening day. Creates a sort of slow, limited, re-auction now that we have more info. Seems like a way to go?

The auctions have been pretty competitive. Some guys have actually gone for more than their original contracts, and others have gone for a lot less depending on circumstances.

This way everyone gets a couple weeks to adjust rosters, and then we can play the game as intended without complaining about everything that’s happened since the spring!

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Yeah I think @dberuta is probably on to it - it may stink to not be able to re-bid on a guy, but cuts and re-auctions will cause other teams to cut players and you can kind of shuffle things around a bit by doing that chain reaction.

Can anyone help me understand what’s going on with Aroldis Chapman’s status?

Yankees IL’ed him last week, his news blurb mentions he tested positive for COVID; but I guess the data provider still has him as DTD?

Thanks :+1:

Yep pretty much. You can always see the source by searching Rotowire (our injury status provider):

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=10866

They are rolling with this fluid situation and probably would update Aroldis Chapman to being on the COVID19-IL, but may require a nudge.

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Is it possible to grant Jose Urquidy and Yordan Alvarez COVID status? Houston is being vague about what they’re dealing with but that seems medical privacy related which likely indicates they’re dealing with COVID related issues. Everything about their situations suggests COVID.

In a slightly off-topic point, it’s unpleasant to see someone like Domingo German who’s suspended for domestic assault grant owners an extra roster spot but not players with obvious but unconfirmed COVID diagnoses. (But maybe I’m incorrectly reading why German counts toward the COVID exemption.)

Domingo German is suspended. Suspended players do not count against the 40-man roster. This change was implemented a couple of weeks ago but was announced a year ago

In terms of players not on the COVID-19 IL, you are all more than welcome to reach out to Rotowire if you see someone that has been reported to be on the COVID-19 IL but isn’t designated as such. They have shown a willingness to follow trustworthy reporting since teams generally cannot be transparent on their own about who is and isn’t on that IL. End of the day, we trust their designations and will not manually override any player.

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got it.
thanks for the reply!

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The following update is now showing up on Brendan McKay’s page. Is it safe to assume a COVID designation will be attached at some point?


August 1, 2020 1:32 PM : McKay has been cleared to return after a positive COVID-19 test wiped out his entire summer camp, and he began throwing at the Rays’ alternate training site Saturday, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports.
Analysis : It hadn’t been previously revealed that McKay’s absence was due to COVID-19, though it followed the same pattern as several other players who had tested positive. He threw a 20-pitch live batting practice session Saturday, so it’s likely still quite some time before he’s built up to a starter’s workload, though the creative Rays could use him in other ways before he’s ready to pitch deep into games. It’s not yet clear when he’s expected to be activated.

We don’t manage the COVID-19 IL so my recommendation is that nothing is safe to assume. This year has kinda been that way.